Antigua, Guatemala

I recently left Antigua after spending a relaxing four days there. It is the most colonial, touristy, and, some would say, the most picturesque (though that depends of course on one´s definition) town in Guatemala. Cobblestone streets and brightly colored buildings all touching one another.

On Thursday, I hiked up Vulcan Pacaya. The initial hike through the forest takes just over an hour and then you reach the lava flows. I never realized how many different shapes lava can make when it flows and hardens: long smooth patches, rough clumps, small separate brittle stones, and, my favorite, the waves. Once we reached this part, I understood why there were so many kids at the bottom of the hike renting walking sticks to tourists (~$.70). Luckily, I had rented one because it was impossible to tell if the rock you were about to step on was stable or not until you poked it. After stumbling about on the hardened lava for some time, I finally looked up and saw how close we were to the hot flowing lava. By the time we reached shoe melting point, we were about 5-6 feet away and could see it slowly moving. Pretty cool (and hot!). Unfortunately, it soon began raining and our guide made us leave because he said the rain evaporating on the lava caused a lot of bad fumes. By this time, it was getting a bit dark and on the walk back we could see the lava glowing under the stones we were walking on. I had no idea it was so close the whole time. Of course, we had to try poking it with our sticks. It was too far to reach, but the sticks caught on fire a little anyhow, due to the intensive heat. The walk back through the forest was mostly in the dark, though Lisi and I had one borrowed flashlight between us (which broke halfway down the mountain--luckily the guide let us borrow his).

As cool as the volcano was, the best thing about Antigua was the hotel we stayed at, Los Encuentros. The lady who runs it, Irma, took care of everyone like a mom. A double room with two big beds cost less than $7 per person and included free internet, laundry (which she did for me), use of the kitchen, bottled water, and coffee. The rooms are pretty nice and there is a large patio with a bunch of tables in the middle instead of a hallway. And Irma is so nice and helpful, offering Lisi the use of some sneakers for the hike and reminding us to bring jackets when we went out. I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to Antigua--let me know if you need directions!

Besides lounging about the hotel and walking around the town--it's central park is my favorite so far, we also managed to: accidentally see Night at the Museum (instead of Babel), find a live Mexican ska cover band, drink a lot of Gallo (English translation: cock) beer, buy a fruit we'd never seen before (I forgot what it's called, but it looks like a really prickly avocado. The girl who sold it to us thought we were ridiculous because it was so strange and amusing that we had to keep laughing), eat Italian and Thai food, and meet a lot of Israelis. There were six of them, Lisi from Austria, and me staying at our hotel. I never met anyone from Israel before, so it was great to talk with them. The three guys were really friendly and the three girls were really rude and antisocial to Lisi and I. Really strange. They told us that all men are required to do three years of army service and all women are required to do two years. After their service is up, most people travel for a year or two before going to university. To fund the trips, a lot of them go to the US and work for a few months selling Dead Sea cosmetics in the malls. They gave me some demonstrations of their spiels and they were quite charming and convincing.
I´m now in San Pedro on Lago de Atitlán. More about the lake towns later.